Things are unraveling in the concluding book of The Book of Dust, the next of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a realm that seems, in this volume especially, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is draining from governments, and pooling in the offices of theocrats, the treasuries of conglomerates, the hands of mobs. "An element is at work, stealthily, very subtly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his place in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and durable are deteriorating and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that animates The Rose Field, which picks up where the previous book left off. This is, reportedly, the author's last excursion into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling realm he first revealed 30 years ago, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a world whose terrain aligns with that of our world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals look and reason and act like us, but are paired by daemons, essences in animal form; where the heavens are filled with witches and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, buses are taken and beverages is consumed, and mature scholars carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in the prequel, the prequel with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still clearly the sharp and determined main character of the earlier books, but more mature, melancholic, warier, less certain. This restraint is amplified by her split from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
The daemon's resolve to leave in search of that childlike part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an trait which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the incitements of its predecessor, which chronicled Lyra undertake a wandering trek across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with wonder and danger on the way. But from the beginning, deeper currents were in action, and sinister powers at work. The religious council – the religious ruling body, and the author's deliciously chilling representation of rigid, procedural wickedness – is under new leadership, and asserting its power. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's family member, who blames her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of leader of the Magisterium's High Council, and is determined on using his fresh power to expand the religion's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who saved young Lyra to safety along a flooded river as an young boy in the prequel, is now an academic with a additional duty in espionage: he is assigned to the city to discover more about the antagonist's plans. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and costly rose oil which appears in some way to be the cause of a social and economic upheaval spreading out from the region. The oil is regarded by certain groups as a marketable commodity, by alternate groups as a research-based or esoteric phenomenon, and by further factions – the extremist "men from the mountains" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an affront that must be destroyed. The issue of its source, what it stands for, and whether it should be removed or preserved is becoming urgent.
Like His Dark Materials, our protagonist's actions, and her destiny, are revealed to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the universe
In its predecessor, these narratives ran broadly in parallel. In this final book, they converge. Similar to the first trilogy, her movements and her destiny are shown to be deeply linked with the destiny of the world. Her personal journey to reunite with her companion and regain her creativity becomes the central battleground in a broader conflict with an oppressive government which, as these systems often attempt, is seeking to stifle independence of thinking, originality and expression: all the internal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be independent.
Dimensional Rifts and Moral Battles
The book begins with the finding of a collection of strange cracks in the makeup of the Earth's air: gateways that seem to lead to different dimensions. One such opening manifests to be the origin of the much debated mystical extract. The authority, with its leader at its leadership, classifies these windows as a threat to the church's orthodoxy and sets out to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from strict reason and back to intuition, nevertheless, her conviction that these places must be preserved – that what they stand for and what they provide is mysteriously vital – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the vision, or the field of roses, or whatever we label it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a philosophical tussle between innocence and maturity is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
